A Fox's Progress
by Spartan322
Summary: Nick was first seen as a hustler, but how did he truly become the hustler fox that Judy met. Who is Nicholas Wilde?
**First, obligatory I don't own the original work, Zootopia. I will not say it again.**

 **Now I was inspired to start thinking about Nick, except in a way different from what I had thought about him before, I mean we see all these stories of post-Judy Nick, but how about one where we follow his growth as a character, from youngling (I prefer to sound like a Jedi when talking about younglings, get over it :P) to possibly a few points after he meets Judy. I will be separating them into acts, where multiple chapters will cover arcs, I will give a quick summary of the time between in those cases, and all the starting stories will be in chronological order, after I pass that point I'll write it similar to drabbles or one-shots.**

 **In any case this will be a third person story following Nick. Many other canon and non-canon characters will appear, but the only constant is Nick being the focus. This fic will also not focus on shipping Nick and Judy at any point, it may at some point put them together, but that shall be a side thing at best. Just to note I am writing this for myself and releasing it to the public, while I'd like people to tell me when I'm screwing up, I will likely not do suggestions, you can suggest and I will respond, but I'm not likely to say yes. (especially if it's a Nick and Judy ship focus suggestion, I like the ship, but it's been abused way too much in my opinion and there is nothing I can think to do which has not been abused already, so I won't, not gonna reinvent the wheel here)**

 **This fic will be full of many different things following possibly how Nick became the hustler he was before he met Judy and became a cop. One more thing, I am writing with T in mind, while I will insinuate "going for coffee" for example, I will never even come close to actually being more explicit. Simply put, no smut, no M rating, no extremely descriptive gore or any other inappropriate stuff, if you really want to disturb yourself, I'm letting your imagination do it instead.**

 **So now that I've described the fic's purpose, I'm wondering how many of you shut this before getting here. In any case I hope this goes well and that you readers like this. Oh and this fic is not my main fic (not even for Zootopia) so it may get sporadic updates.**

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Act 1:

Experience, The Cruel Reminder

Chapter 1: Scouting and Velpez

Nick, a young red fox of the Wilde family, lived in the city his entire life. He always liked living there, he may have known no other home, but the little house sat much beyond the center of the city, and the skyscrapers playing the background of the horizon always felt like home to him.

Today however, it did not matter, because today, he was to finally reach his dream of becoming a Junior Ranger Scout, and being the first predator to join the club filled him with such pride. Thus he rushed out of his house, and ran off to his first troop meeting. He was so excited, he was finally achieving his dream. Nothing could stand in his way, maybe he could do even more, go into the military, or maybe become a cop, nothing could stand in his way as long as he had the ability to try. His rush of thought eventually led him to the door of the troop, and thus the leading adults were just inside, though he felt uncomfortable being surrounded by only older prey mammals. He proceeded to rush down after being told where the rest of the troop was, albeit by hesitant and rather rude animals. Nick however let it slide and nearly fell down the stairs to the basement.

As he reached the last step, the rest of the mammals surrounded him, giving him congratulatory high fives until he reached the apparently leading beaver. "Practically born ready," he said as he stepped up. He was told to raise his right paw and proclaim the oath. "I, Nicholas Wilde, promise to be brave, loyal, helpful and trustworthy" he said with pride until the beaver replied back, "Even though you're a fox." They pushed him to the ground just after he responded in a surprise 'What?' They rushed in to stick a muzzle on the confused fox. "You think we'd ever trust a fox without a muzzle, you're even dumber than you look?" They all stared at him harshly, one responded with "Is he gonna cry?" before he rushed out in sadness, the leading adults barely noticed.

After he rushed down the stairs he made a turn to the side and proceeded to rip off the muzzle before he started crying into his legs. He sobbed for ten minutes before he heard the door open and started to run into the night, feeling worse than ever before. He ran until he found an alley, and weaped further. Soon a gray furred arctic fox saw him, wet eyes on his sleeves, handkerchief loose and ragged already. He could hear the weeping from across the street and was curious. He was a wiser gentlemen who had few family left. He saw the young fox crying with the uniform, and was already sure of what plagued this young soul. Nick was originally too covered in depression to notice the arctic fox but soon enough he got Nick's attention. "Hey...what's wrong youngling?" Nick however was preparing to bolt in both fear and grief. "Oh no wait, I don't want to harm you, just want to know, are you ok?" He gently grabbed Nick's arm to keep him from running. He then dropped his arm before the red fox felt uncomfortable. Nick fell right back against the wall he was leaning on and sobbed more. "Get," he sobbed more, "...away," and then sobbed more. "I'd think I'd prefer to get you home first, would you like to tell me where you live, or should I wait?."

Nick continued to sob over his crushed dream, everything seemed impossible, life itself felt worthless to him. The arctic fox sighed and began to crouch down. "What is your name?" He asked. "Nick," the red fox replied still sobbing. "Alright Nick, I think there is one thing you should know." Nick looked back up with reddened eyes. "Never let them see that they get to you." He told the fox and then stood back up and reached out a hand. "You ready to go home?" Nick looked back at the artic fox. "Bet your parents wouldn't want you to be upset in an alley." The red fox reached his paw up and the older fox pulled him to his feet, and they began walking back as Nick told the older fox where he lived.

"So what is your name?" He asked in a less fevered state of sadness. "Call me Mister Velpez."

As Mr. Velpez and Nick took their time to Nick's house, Nick's spirits were being lifted by the arctic fox. He was cracking jokes and sarcasm at the younger red until he started laughing, even if some were rather inappropriate for a young fox. Mr. Velpez avoided talking about the scout stuff, and took his time trying to read Nick figure out exactly what happened, he already inferred it was related to the scouting he was obviously dressed for, and with chance, they were likely all prey animals. This allowed him to suspect what happened, he was likely outcasted for trying to fit in. The only hole left was what they exactly did, though the more time he spent, the more he was getting sure he knew. "Hmm...I don't mean to upset you again, but what exactly happened that left you in that alley youngling?" He inwardly smirked at a good nickname for the little red.

Nick however began to look at his feet as the weight of sadness started to weight back on him. "I was muzzled. I just wanted to be one of them, just wanted to..." and Nick began to sob again, tears collecting in his eye. Nick sat down in more despair and Mr. Velpez sat beside him, grasping his shoulder gently. "There are few who see us as gentle or truthful, only harsh and dishonest, if they truly don't want to see, why let them see a different light..." Mr. Velpez looked down in memory of what he'd done. "If they only wanted to see a fox as shifty and untrustworthy, then why try to be better? Why bother trying to be anything better?" He looked back to Nick. "But yet, why let another fox suffer. Remember that, never show yourself, and don't try to be better, become what you are, it's safer for us all." He looked back to Nick. "I'm sorry I brought up your pain." Though he was satisfied his guesses were likely right, but seeing a young pained fox never gave him joy, so he was begrudgingly accepting of that 'victory'. "Let's get you home before your parents start to worry hmm? Wouldn't want that would we?" Nick nodded and replied in a confirmation before he and Mr. Velpez continued their walk until Nick made it home.

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"Thank you Mr. Velpez, I don't know what I'd do if I couldn't find him." Mrs. Wilde said, showing much care and worry for her son. "You must come in..." She was to continue, but Mr. Velpez stopped her. "Oh, no, no need to thank me or invite me in, just glad to help." Mr. Velpez was about to walk down the stairs but turned his head back to face Nick, who was still standing in the door. "Oh and youngling, if you ever need anything," He flicked a card up, smirked, and passed the card to Nick as he crouched down. "Though I suspect your mom would like to know first if you do. And be good to her, she seems to really love you, God knows we need more people like her." He got up and began to walk down the street before turning and waving goodbye to the family at the door.

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 **Alright, so sorry for the very short first chapter, I was inspired without much direction originally and so I got this up quick. It's actually really time consuming to write about Nick, his young self needs to grow constantly and that's a hard thing to write for. Also with how much emotion Nick had, the right stuff might lift him up, and if you haven't noticed, I'm trying to put Velpez as a key role model for Nick, whether good or bad, it'll be him that will act most like pre-Judy Nick while Nick is growing up.**

 **How was that? Was it good? I know it's short, I'll see about improving the size of this, though I really tried to not stick any BS in the story so that's another reason it's so short. And if you haven't noticed, Velpez is a play on words, I'll let you readers take a few guesses to what it is.**

 **Story title might temporary if I find a better one or someone suggests a better one**

 **Anyhow, if you liked fav and follow, and if no matter what leave me a review to help me out. Thank you for reading. Spartan out.**


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